Conventional x-ray microscopes that utilize imaging optics are generally limited by the resolution of the x-ray optics (e.g. zone plates) and/or the resolution of the pixel size of the detector. For projection-based systems, the resolution is limited by the size of the x-ray source and the finite pixel size of the detector. Although some commercial x-ray microscope systems utilizing zone plates have a resolution of less than 100 nm, such systems have an extremely limited field of view. Projection based x-ray microscopes do provide reasonable field of view with resolution better than 1 micron, but the acquisition times for reasonable signal-to-noise ratio tend to be very long, rendering the technique practically useless for many applications. Therefore, x-ray microscopy with resolution smaller than 1 micron while also having a large field-of-view has difficulty producing images with an integration time short enough to make the technique practical.
There is therefore a need for high-resolution microscopy systems that can provide both high resolution and a large field of view.